Arena Rex Monsters

I'm always glad when a client sends some Arena Rex minis my way- the game has a wonderful set of sculpts. Here are the two strangest monsters from their lineup- the chimeric Proximo and the emaciated Wendigo. The only trouble I have with these pictures is that the gloss doesn't show up (it works on bloodied areas- the practically undead Wendigo has a few areas that should look shiny).

Wedding Cake Toppers Battling Monsters

When I first started out making cake toppers, my first few clients had concepts that were all about the zombies. But since then, the wedding cake toppers have moved to where they express all sorts of unique geek themes.

 Here are a few of the other monsters I've created for cake toppers to fight (and the brides and grooms that do battle with them).

 

Harlequins

Here's the start of a Harlequin force that I painted up for a client just a little while ago. This is the third full army of Harlequins I've painted, and each has had a very distinct and different color scheme concept.

 I really love doing Harlequin characters- the patterns are a lot of fun. For this particular group, I kept the color pallet under fairly tight on each of them in particular- so the whole group doesn't get too crazy.

 

Elven Cosplay Wedding Cake Toppers

I've made quite a few different cake toppers for some of the videogame fans out there. A lot of them prefer to feature the bride and groom holding videogame controllers or such, but sometimes we go a bit further.

 Here are a few cake toppers featuring elven bride and grooms that I've really come to enjoy. As with all the cake toppers I've made, these are completely custom built and customizable- the couple chose the poses and all the details.

 




 

Grabby House- Super Dungeon Explore

I must admit that I have quite a fondness for things that are at once creepy and cute. That makes the Grabby House the perfect spawn point in Super Dungeon Explore

 It turns out I have a bit of experience painting zombies. I went with a different skin tone for each of them. I also added a little touch at the end with some gloss (to make the cuts seem more fresh.

 

Chibi Frankenstein Diorama

Here's a little diorama I did with Impact! Miniature's chibi flesh golem mini. I really loved adding a little color to the grey scale. I was hoping to capture the old expressionist look and add a little cuteness to it.

 The trees are from a Games Workshop kit, the sarcophagus is a Reaper Bones piece, and the skeleton is from Sodapop Miniatures.

 

Chilon- Iron Kingdoms Giant

I play in an RPG group that has been meeting weekly for a good long time. Our favorite setting is the Iron Kingdoms- we started back when it used the D&D rules and we've kept playing with the new system.

 The new system hasn't been around as long, and we often have to convert the old statlines into the new system ourselves- especially for some of the epic monsters that Privateer Press isn't ready to explore yet.

 Here is Chilon. He is a Giant of Bemoth who was captured by the Skorne and forced to labor for them. Last he was seen in official cannon, he refused to fight for the Skorne, but we felt that it was only a matter of time before his will was completely broken.

 I converted this mini from the Ultraforge Giant to match the IK artwork- so he lost his nose, and had to have his hands rexculpted. I also replace his weapon with something that looked a little more Skorne. So here he is- mounted on a CD (120mm base)

 

Romantic Ninja Cake Topper

Here is a design for a cake topper that has really become a classic for me: The Romantic Ninja dipping his bride.

 I've done quite a few of these, and even though I can't customize the characters nearly as much as with other toppers, it is still a popular choice for couples.

Barbazu for Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl is a fantastic game- and for many years it has been unsupported. This has led to a lot of third party "fantasy football" miniatures, as well as a healthy habit of players converting their own teams.

This is the second type. Sometime after the Bones 2 Kickstarter, I found that I had a lot more Bugbears than I felt like I needed. But I started thinking that they'd make great ogres, and if they only were a bit more demonic, they could be combined with a group of Imps that I had leftover from Ex Illis.

 So here are my team's stars- the Bearded Devils. So far, they've performed a bit better than one should expect of the worst stunty team around.

 

Sunstalker

As I've been creating my own set of Chibi Kingdom Death minis, I've found that some of the monsters have such bizarre proportions that there's no need to convert them into chibis.

 Overall, my approach is to have the minis become less distorted and cute as they get larger (the way that Final Fantsy, Pokemon and Super Dungeon Explore do things). So, a lot of the very large monsters don't need to be altered. Instead, I try to paint them in vibrant colors that really let them pop out. I also create the bases using chibi faces rather than the normal ones.

 So, here is my Sunstalker:

 

Arena Rex Rhinoceros

Normal animals tend to be few and far between in miniatures. There are lines of anthropomorphic animals, and all sorts of chimera- mostly of predators.

 Most animal minis are either animal companions or mounts. Arena Rex has a neat opportunity- their setting has quite a few plain old animals in it (from my theatre history, animals were features in the colosseum more often than gladiators fighting one another).

 The animals of Arena Rex are just as well sculpted as the humans and monsters of the line- they're absolutely beautiful minis and take to paint brilliantly.

 

Arena Rex Medusa- a second time around

Medusa is easily among the most beautiful sculpts I've ever painted. My hat is off to Sebastian Archer, he really outdid himself with this one.

After I posted the first one, another client asked me to paint her up for him. I mostly followed my original color scheme, except this time I used true metallics in place of the non-metallic metals I used the first time around.

 I'll need to paint one up for myself sometime.

 

Magic Cake Toppers

Since they're all custom made, I run across quite a few different themes in cake toppers. Here are a few of them that added a sort of fantasy magical element to them:

 


 

Manhunter

Since this weekend will see the end of the campaign, I figured I'd post up another Kingdom Death mini. This time, it is the Manhunter- one of the monsters from the game.

 This is the plastic version, and I created the base mostly from scratch, with one GW bit thrown in there.

 I'll be making a chibi of him someday...

 

Two Weighted Companion Cake Toppers

Here are two cake toppers that I created for clients who had the same basic concept for them. I think it is a good example of how much different they can turn out with the details about the couples factored in.

 Here they are:

 

The Tardis Can Always Fit In- Anytime, Anywhere, Any Setting

There's something special about the Tardis. It just seems like no matter what sort of setting it shows up in, it never seems wrong. It could make an appearance on the Enterprise or drop in at Hogwarts, and it just always seems like it isn't out of character. Here's one of our Cosplaying Cake Toppers from a couple who knew the Tardis always works.



 

Chibi Kingdom Death: The Butcher

Ok, for Thanksgiving, we finished off our Kingdom Death Monster campaign with an epic battle against the Watcher. It was pretty glorious.

 We played with all the Chibi conversions of KDM minis I've made, and the survivors were all heroes from Super Dungeon Explore. Princess Ruby was pretty awesome with her bone darts and monster tooth necklace.

 Now that I've admitted to finishing off more Kingdom Death Chibis than I've shown off, I figure I'd better get to posting them. Here's the Butcher:

 






 And if you don't know what Kingdom Death: Monster is, you should probably have a look at the outstanding Kickstarter that they're running right now. The fact that it got to 3.5 million overnight is not overstating the quality of the game- it is fantastic on pretty much every level.

Cinder and Dragon Pup

Here's a fun little set of dragons that I painted up. Both minis are Reaper Bones plastic. I believe I made the base from a mini CD (they're exactly 80mm wide, so they work really well at this size).

 I had a lot of fun with this dragon- I'm always fond of painting dragons in non-standard chromatic colors.

 


 

Sitting Cake Topper pose

Here's a couple who wanted a topper very similar to the other Kissing Gamers that I've made. But this couple preferred the idea of sitting on the edge of the cake holding their video game controllers.

 I tend not to have a cake lying around for photos, but here they are on a stand that will work well enough for the pictures:


 

Kingdom Death Starting Survivors

Among the Kingdom Death's great lineup of minis, one set that I'll always be fond of is the four starting survivors.

They're all beautiful sculpts that really grant an opportunity to do nice skintones. For these four, my client wanted something similar to what is suggested in the Kingdom Death artwork- except that Erza was definitely not to have blue hair.

 Here they are in all their glory:

 
Zachery and Erza

 
Lucy and Alister